This book gives very minute details about life of Luis Suarez and his soaring career. Even though he was born in a destitute family, it did not stop him from being one of the greatest footballer in his position.
Luis Suarez heartily shares his life by doing post-mortem of his journey from playing street football at hometown to being Uruguay's international.
I think Suárez has written this book to accept his each and every wrong deeds as well as to defend the false accusation against him. More than that, he has written this book to throw out negatively which i think is the part of therapy he has attended to a psychologist after biting Italia defender Chiellini.
Moments before the Chiellini bite, he had a great chance to put Uruguay 1-0 up. If he had scored that goal, if Buffon hadn’t made the save, then what followed would never have happened. He would not have done anything. Nothing. But he missed the chance. The pressure builded, the fear and the anger bubbled up inside: ‘We’re going out here, and we’re going out because of me.’ He didn’t realise the magnitude of what he was doing or what he might do.
In this book, he is actually trying to explain it to himself, to understand what happens and why.
Being a Liverpool fan, I already admire him a lot. And after reading this book, I developed more respect towards him. I have found these things impressive and striking in his books:-
• By comparing the kids football school of Uruguay and Holland, Suarez says that - Kids in Holland work with the ball the whole time. But the first thing football school for kids in Uruguay do is send them out running for three laps around the pitch and when they’ve finished maybe throw them one ball between the lot of them. This is why, high proportion of players in Holland have excellent technique compared to Uruguay.
• Make your desire to win contagious, spreading throughout the team and infecting all the others.
• He has defended referees and their wrong decisions in this book calling the job of referees to be most difficult job ever. Being in the right position every time, taking the abuse, making instant decision and being under constant pressure; if a player can make mistakes, referee will make it too. Above all, they too are football fans.
• When you’re away from home, you miss the good things and you forget the bad ones.
• About the save he made against Ghana in 2010 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal, a paper in South Africa that called it the ‘Hand of the Devil’ and ran a picture of Suárez with horns; this is where he states that "what I did was bad but not bad as compared to goal scored with hand by Diego Maradona in 1986. I had prevented a goal and I paid for it."
• Suárez explains why his save against Ghana in 2010 World Cup holded a grudge: In 1/1000 th of a second, pretty much every player in the world on the line keeps the ball out with his hand because it’s the automatic reaction. He gets sent off, a penalty is given and that is the end of it. But it was the World Cup in South Africa who were already knocked out and the host country was supporting Ghana, Africa’s only representative still in the competition. That made it seem worse to people.
• You'll feel sorry for Luis because he has been honest about everything in this book. Being honest as much as possible, Suárez has even spoken about his incident with Patrice Evra. Luis has no problem on calling him ‘big-mouth’, ‘biter’ or ‘diver’ as there's a proof. But accusing him as a RACIST hurts him a lot. This is the stain that slurred on his name that no one can take away.
• He has even talked about family issues of normal people. In a big family, there is always someone with a problem, but most family issues cannot be solved by money. You have the money and you still have the problem or you solve the problem for them and then they come back with their uncle and their uncle’s brother who also has a problem. So, even if you are filthy rich, you should be tight fisted and help those people only who are willing to appreciate and value what they have.
• There are hilarious incidents regarding his time at Liverpool:
1. One is about the water which he says he drinks more than 5 litres a day. "During the game, you forget about everything but afterwards it hits me and I am in and out of the toilet constantly. I’ll meet my wife afterwards and almost as soon as I’m there with her, it will be: ‘Hang on, I’ve just got to go the toilet.’ Then twenty minutes later it’s: ‘Won’t be a minute, I’m just going to the toilet.’ It drives Sofi mad and my team-mates are always laughing at me– if we’re on the bus or catching a flight, I’m always dashing off. They’re looking at me, thinking: ‘What? Again?’ 😂
2. Another is when Suárez scored a second goal against England at 2014 FIFA World Cup and Suárez's wife sofi celebrated the goal. At that time their daughter Delfina, who’d spent the season watching Jordan, Glen, Raheem, Daniel and Stevie, had turned to her and said: ‘Why are you happy that Liverpool are losing, Mummy?’ 😂
• Through this book, Suárez has tried to express why the England national football team is not getting any trophies. He don't claim to have answer of this but insists that it's not due to the lack of resources but the reason lie elsewhere:
1. He believes that English football is affected by the lack of a winter break. The Christmas and New Year programme is special but to have a fifteen-or twenty-day break after that in January so that players can stop both physically and mentally could have enormous benefits. Instead, there’s an extra cup competition squeezed into the fixture list in England.
2. "It's not just the number of games in England, it is the intensity of each game. If you compare the intensity of the Bundesliga, La Liga and the Premier League, you can see that the English league’s harder. The players who come from abroad notice the intensity even more. That lies at the root of the problem for English teams in Europe. You see this not just with the national team but with the Champions League too."
• It's hard to cope with a new people in new place and it becomes more difficult when you don't know their language. But Suárez successfully learned Dutch language when he played for Ajax. Meanwhile he learned some English during his time at Liverpool. But the funny thing is Suárez rote learned some English words just to tell it after a match when reporters asked. It was always-"The most important thing is the three points' ... 'We knew this would be a hard game and we have been working towards it all week' ... 'We're happy, but now we have to concentrate on the next game." 😂
• He has mentioned about his earlier managers and coaches and said that the job of managers is hard too. He has made his mind for not being managers in the future but if some of his friend becomes a coach and wants him as assistant, then he may think about it...
• Finally about the biting incident with Giorgio Chiellini, he accepts to have done it but the behaviour of FIFA towards him was worse than a criminal. He has raised some questions on this topic to which I support. Some are -
1. "The nine-game ban was to be expected. But being sent home and banned from all stadiums?"
2. Banning him from playing for Liverpool when his bans in England never prevented him from playing for Uruguay?
3. Banning Suárez from going to watch his nine-and ten-year-old nephews play a game of Baby Football?
4. Banning him from all stadiums worldwide?
5. Stopping him from even jogging around the perimeter of a football pitch?
6. FIFA had never banned a player for breaking someone’s leg, or smashing someone’s nose across his face. These incidents are dangerous than biting.
In terms of quality of book, the book can be rated just above average but his life is always of 5 out of 5 stars.